DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

Fall 2012 Statement of Regulatory Priorities

The Department of Labor's fall 2012 agenda continues Secretary Solis' vision of Good Jobs for Everyone. It also renews the Labor Department's commitment to efficient and effective regulation through the review and modification of our existing regulations, consistent with Executive Order 13563 ("E.O. 13563").

The Labor Department's vision of a "good job" includes jobs that:

The Department continues to use a variety of mechanisms to achieve the goal of Good Jobs for Everyone, including increased enforcement actions, increased education and outreach, and regulatory actions that foster compliance. At the same time, the Department is enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of its efforts through targeted regulatory actions designed to improve compliance and burden reduction initiatives. The Department's Plan/Prevent/Protect and Openness and Transparency compliance strategies and the implementation of E.O. 13563 create unifying themes that seek to foster a new calculus that strengthens protections for workers. By requiring employers and other regulated entities to take full ownership over their adherence to Department regulations and promoting greater openness and transparency for employers and workers alike, the Department seeks to significantly increase compliance. The increased effectiveness of this compliance strategy will enable the Department to achieve the Good Jobs for Everyone goal in a regulatory environment that is more efficient and less burdensome.

Plan/Prevent/Protect Compliance Strategy: The regulatory actions that comprise the Department's Plan/Prevent/Protect strategy are designed to ensure employers and other regulated entities are in full compliance with the law every day, not just when Department inspectors come calling. The Plan/Prevent/Protect strategy was first announced with the Spring 2010 Regulatory Agenda. Employers, unions, and others who follow the Department's Plan/Prevent/Protect strategy will assure compliance with employment laws before Labor Department enforcement personnel arrive at their doorsteps. Most important, they will assure that workers get the safe, healthy, diverse, family-friendly, and fair workplaces they deserve. In the Fall 2012 Regulatory Agenda, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), and the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) will all propose regulatory actions furthering the Department's implementation of the Plan/Prevent/Protect strategy.

Openness and Transparency - Tools for Achieving Compliance: Greater openness and transparency continues to be central to the Department's compliance and regulatory strategies. The fall 2012- regulatory plan demonstrates the Department's continued commitment to conducting the people's business with openness and transparency, not only as good Government and stakeholder engagement strategies, but as important means to achieve compliance with the employment laws administered and enforced by the Department. Openness and transparency will not only enhance agencies' enforcement actions but will encourage greater levels of compliance by the regulated community and enhance awareness among workers of their rights and benefits. When employers, unions, workers, advocates, and members of the public have greater access to information concerning workplace conditions and expectations, then we all become partners in the endeavor to create Good Jobs for Everyone.

Risk Reduction: The Department believes Plan/Prevent/Protect and increased Openness and Transparency will result in improvements to worker health and safety; fair pay, earned overtime compensation, secure benefits; fair, diverse and family-friendly environments that provide workplace flexibility for family and personal care-giving However, when the Department identifies specific hazards and risks to worker health, safety, security, or fairness, the Department will utilize its regulatory powers to limit the risk to workers. The Fall 2012 Regulatory Agenda includes examples of such regulatory initiatives to address such specific concerns, many of which are discussed in this document.

Retrospective Review of Existing Rules: The Fall 2012 Regulatory Agenda aims to achieve more efficient and less burdensome regulation through retrospective review of Labor Department regulations. On January 18, 2011, the President issued Executive Order (E.O.) 13563 entitled "Improving Regulation and Regulatory Review." The E.O. aims to "strike the right balance" between what is needed to protect health, welfare, safety, and the environment for all Americans, and what is needed to foster economic growth, job creation, and competitiveness.

In August 2011, as part of a Government wide response to E.O. 13563, the Department published its Plan for Retrospective Analysis of Existing Rules, which identifies several burden-reducing review projects. On March 26, 2012 OSHA published the Hazard Communication/Globally Harmonized System for Classification and Labeling of Chemicals final rule. Cost savings for employers from productivity improvements arising from the rule were estimated to be $507.2 million annually. The estimated net benefits of the rule are $556 million annually. EBSA's Abandoned Plan Program, results in an estimated $500,000 savings, and expanding the program will provide substantial benefits to plans of sponsors in bankruptcy liquidation and bankruptcy trustees while imposing minimal costs ($64,000). These projects estimate monetized savings that would eliminate between roughly $580 to $790 million in annual regulatory burdens. Proposals such as OSHA's Standard Improvement Project - Phase IV (SIP IV) and Revocation of Certification Records are expected to produce additional savings. Several non-regulatory actions are expected to have similar results.

The Department is also taking action to eliminate regulations that are no longer effective or enforceable. This effort will include removal of the Job Training Partnership Act program requirements; attestation requirements by facilities using nonimmigrant aliens as registered nurses as implemented through the Immigration Nursing Relief Act of 1999; and, attestation requirements by employers using F-1 students in off-campus work as authorized by the supplementing sections of Immigration Act of 1990. It will also include removal of regulatory actions that are no longer enforceable, including labor certification process requirements for logging employment and non-H-2A agricultural employment. In total, this agenda includes 10 review projects --- that is, more than 13 percent of all the Department's planned regulatory actions.

Pursuant to section 6 of E.O. 13563, the following Regulatory Identifier Numbers (RINs) are associated with the Department's Plan for Retrospective Analysis of Existing Rules. More information about completed rulemakings, which are no longer included in the plan, can be found on Reginfo.gov. The original August 2011 DOL Plan for Retrospective Analysis of Existing Rules and subsequent quarterly updates can be found at: http://www.dol.gov/regulations/

Regulatory Identifier Number

Title of Rulemaking

Whether it is Expected to Significantly Reduce Burdens on Small Businesses

1218-AC34

Bloodborne Pathogens

No

1218-AC77

Updating OSHA Standards Based on National Consensus Standards (Signage)

No

1218-AC67

Standard Improvement Project - Phase IV (SIP IV)

Yes

1218-AC75

Cranes and Derricks in Construction: Revision to Digger Derricks' Requirements

Yes

1218-AC74

Review/Lookback of OSHA Chemical Standards

To Be Determined

1218-AC80

Revocation of Certification Records

To Be Determined

1219-AB72

Criteria and Procedures for Proposed Assessment of Civil Penalties (Part 100)

To Be Determined

1250-AA05

Sex Discrimination Guidelines

To Be Determined

1210-AB47

Amendment of Abandoned Plan Program

Yes

1205-AB59

Equal Employment Opportunity in Apprenticeship and Training, Amendment of Regulations

To Be Determined

1205-AB62

Implementation of Total Unemployment Rate Extended Benefits Trigger and Rounding Rule

No

1205-AB68

Job Training Partnership Act; Removal of JTPA

No, action will not increase burden to small businesses as regulatory provisions are no longer operative

1205-AB65

Labor Certification Process for Logging Employment and Non-H-2A Agricultural Employment

No, action will not increase burden to small businesses as regulatory provisions are no longer operative

1205-AB66

Attestations by Employers Using F-1 Students in Off-Campus Work

No, action will not increase burden to small businesses as regulatory provisions are no longer operative

1205-AB67

Attestations by Facilities Using Nonimmigrant Aliens as Registered Nurses

No, action will not increase burden to small businesses as regulatory provisions are no longer operative

Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)

OSHA's regulatory program is designed to help workers and employers identify hazards in the workplace, prevent the occurrence of injuries and adverse health effects, and communicate with the regulated community regarding hazards and how to effectively control them. Long-recognized health hazards and emerging hazards place American workers at risk of serious disease and death and are initiatives on OSHA's regulatory agenda. In addition to targeting specific hazards, OSHA is focusing on systematic processes that will modernize the culture of safety in America's workplaces and retrospective review projects that will update regulations and reduce burdens on regulated communities. OSHA's retrospective review projects under E.O.13563 include consideration of the Bloodborne Pathogens standard, updating consensus standards, phase IV of OSHA's standard improvement project (SIP IV), and reviewing various permissible exposure levels.

Plan/Prevent/Protect

Openness and Transparency

Risk Reduction

Regulatory Review and Burden Reduction

Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA)

The Mine Safety and Health Administration is the worker protection agency focused on the prevention of death, disease, and injury from mining and the promotion of safe and healthful workplaces for the Nation's miners. The Department believes that every worker has a right to a safe and healthy workplace. Workers should never have to sacrifice their lives for their livelihood, and all workers deserve to come home to their families at the end of their shift safe and whole. MSHA's approach to reducing workplace fatalities and injuries includes promulgating and enforcing mandatory health and safety standards. MSHA's retrospective review project under E.O.13563 addresses revising the process for proposing civil penalties.

Plan/Prevent/Protect

Openness and Transparency

Risk Reduction

Regulatory Review and Burden Reduction

Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP)

Through the work of OFCCP, DOL ensures that contractors and subcontractors doing business with the Federal Government provide equal employment opportunity and take affirmative action to create fair and diverse workplaces. OFCCP also combats discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, or status as a protected veteran by ensuring that federal contractors recruit, hire, train, promote, terminate, and compensate workers in a nondiscriminatory manner. DOL, through OFCCP, protects workers, promotes diversity and enforces civil rights laws.

Plan/Prevent/Protect

Regulatory Review and Burden Reduction

Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA)

The Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) is responsible for administering and enforcing the fiduciary, reporting and disclosure, and health coverage provisions of title I of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA). This includes recent amendments and additions to ERISA enacted in the Pension Protection Act of 2006, as well as new health coverage provisions under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (the Affordable Care Act). EBSA's regulatory plan initiatives are intended to improve health benefits and retirement security for workers in every type of job at every income level. EBSA is charged with protecting approximately 140 million Americans covered by an estimated 707,000 private retirement plans, 2.3 million health plans, and similar numbers of other welfare benefit plans, which together hold $6.7 trillion in assets.

EBSA will continue to issue guidance implementing the health reform provisions of the Affordable Care Act to help provide better quality health care for American workers and their families. EBSA's regulations reduce discrimination in health coverage, promote better access to quality coverage, and protect the ability of individuals and businesses to keep their current health coverage. Many regulations are joint rulemakings with the Departments of Health and Human Services and the Treasury.

Using regulatory changes to produce greater openness and transparency is an integral part of EBSA's contribution to a department-wide compliance strategy. These efforts will not only enhance EBSA's enforcement toolbox but will encourage greater levels of compliance by the regulated community and enhance awareness among workers of their rights and benefits. Several proposals from the EBSA agenda expand disclosure requirements, substantially enhancing the availability of information to employee benefit plan participants and beneficiaries and employers, and strengthening the retirement security of America's workers. EBSA's retrospective review project under E.O.13563 is Abandoned Plan Program amendments.

Risk Reduction

Promoting Openness and Transparency

In addition to its health care reform and participant protection initiatives discussed above, EBSA is pursuing a regulatory program that, as reflected in the Unified Agenda, is designed to encourage, foster, and promote openness, transparency, and communication with respect to the management and operations of pension plans, as well as participant rights and benefits under such plans. Among other things, EBSA will be issuing a final rule addressing the requirement that administrators of defined benefit pension plans annually disclose the funding status of their plan to the plan's participants and beneficiaries (RIN l210-AB18). In addition, EBSA will be finalizing amendments to the disclosure requirements applicable to plan investment options, including Qualified Default Investment Alternatives, to better ensure that participants understand the operations and risks associated with investments in target date funds (RIN 1210-AB38).

Regulatory Review and Burden Reduction

Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS)

The Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS) administers and enforces most provisions of the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959 (LMRDA). The LMRDA promotes labor-management transparency by requiring unions, employers, labor-relations consultants, and others to file reports, which are publicly available. The LMRDA includes provisions protecting union member rights to participate in their union's governance, to run for office and fully exercise their union citizenship, as well as procedural safeguards to ensure free and fair union elections. Besides enforcing these provisions, OLMS also ensures the financial accountability of unions, their officers and employees, through enforcement and voluntary compliance efforts. Because of these activities, OLMS better ensures that workers have a more effective voice in the governance of their unions, which in turn affords them a more effective voice in their workplaces. OLMS also administers Executive Order 13496, which requires Federal contractors to notify their employees concerning their rights to organize and bargain collectively under Federal labor laws.

Openness and Transparency

Employment and Training Administration (ETA)

The Employment and Training Administration (ETA) administers and oversees programs that prepare workers for good jobs at good wages by providing high quality job training, employment, labor market information, and income maintenance services through its national network of One-Stop centers. The programs within ETA promote pathways to economic independence for individuals and families. Through several laws, ETA is charged with administering numerous employment and training programs designed to assist the American worker in developing the knowledge, skills, and abilities that are sought in the 21st century's economy.

Regulatory Review and Burden Reduction